Fr Michael Tate, a priest of Hobart Archdiocese and former Tasmanian senator, is being remembered as a compassionate and generous man. Source: ABC News.
The South Hobart parish priest died in Hobart yesterday aged 80. Hobart Archbishop Tony Ireland administered the last rites to Fr Tate not long before he died in hospital.
“In many ways, Fr Michael was one of a kind, gifted intellectually, a powerful communicator, and an extraordinarily generous and faithful pastor who loved his people,” Archbishop Ireland said.
Federal Labor minister Julie Collins said Fr Tate was “a devoted member of the Labor Party” who “leaves behind a legacy of integrity, faith, and service to others”.
Fr Tate was born in Sydney and educated at St Virgil’s College in Hobart. He studied law at the University of Tasmania, graduating with first class honours in 1968.
He went on to obtain a master’s degree in theology from the University of Oxford in 1971.
In 1972, he started lecturing in constitutional law at the University of Tasmania, and was appointed dean of the law faculty in 1977.
Fr Tate’s opposition to the Vietnam war, especially the Coalition government’s conscription policy, led him to join the Labor Party.
He was elected to the Senate in 1977, representing Tasmania, and was justice minister in the Hawke and Keating governments from 1987 to 1993.
In 1994, he was appointed as Australia’s ambassador to the Holy See and to the Hague, and in 1996 he was appointed an Officer of the Order of Australia for his distinguished service to Australia.
In a statement, the Hobart Archdiocese said that when Fr Tate left his diplomatic post, he told Pope John Paul II that he would start studying for the Catholic priesthood.
He was ordained a priest in May 2000 and served as a parish priest in several southern Tasmanian parishes and spent some time as Vicar-General.
Fr Tate founded the Way to St James, a pilgrimage in the Huon Valley south of Hobart, inspired by Spain’s Camino de Santiago.
The Hobart Archdiocese said funeral arrangements for Fr Tate would be announced in the coming days.
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Former Tasmanian senator and Catholic priest Michael Tate dies aged 80 (By Loretta Lohberger, ABC News)
Farewell to beloved priest Fr Michael Tate AO (Hobart Archdiocese)
